This research paper was very beneficial for me. I learned so much about the topic from this paper that I can use for my final presentation. I would have never thought that I would get so much info from this topic to the point where I had to narrow down the specifics of my topic. Although challenging, I enjoyed doing this paper as far as preparing me for the final product. I wrote about how the view of beauty has evolved over time and the characteristics of what is beautiful in today's society and the causes for that perception. The Evolution of Beauty In today’s society, beauty has developed its own requirements and characteristics in the eyes of the people. American’s have been influenced in large ways by the media such as the TV, newspaper articles, radio and internet on what is attractive and what isn’t. The stereotypes of beautiful men and women have changed credited to technology and scientific advancements. Most females want to be that skinny, curvy and sexy figure, while men want to be that ripped and toned model you can find on the cover of advertisements and magazines. People have become so worried about fitting in and being socially accepted by others that they go to extreme extents to be beautiful. What they don’t realize is that there isn’t a single guideline of what is beautiful, but insecurity about fitting in drives people to succumb to what society expects of them. Beauty has changed over time, and what is defined as beautiful today is nothing near what it was decades, generations and centuries ago. Society’s view of beauty over time has changed drastically. The qualities and characteristics that represent an attractive male or female in today’s world are completely different from what it was centuries and even generations ago. Dating back to the time of Native Hawaiians, things were completely different from what they are today. A woman's beauty was judged by her physical features rather than by how attractive her face was. The stereotypical beautiful woman was around 6 foot tall and very wide, meaning the bigger she was, the better. Fast-forward to the 20th century, the most famous women of the 1950's was Marilyn Monroe who everyone looked up to as a superstar. She was a dazzling beauty, a model, actress and later a sex symbol. What people don't realize is that if Marilyn was a model in today's society, is that she would be considered too big (Shepphird, 2009). Somehow our generation has a view that skinny is better, but that's definitely not the case. The stereotypes in the world are simply false, unrealistic and inconsistent. Is a person's figure that important in how attractive they are? Recently, it has been evident that even teenagers are being influenced on how important the body of a person is to the opposite sex. It plays a huge role in the way he or she is viewed by people. Despite that, makeup has grown into a huge industry around the world because technology advancements have made it a must for actors and models who wish to look good in front of cameras. To a further extent, you will rarely ever see women in general without make up in public, even middle school girls can be seen with it on. From television shows, we see how important being tanned in, people even have their own tanning machines or even get fake tan sprayed on them for quick fixes. Starting from the early 1900's, women began to use razors to shave their natural body hair. What may have been seen as unusual back then is now a must in society. You will rarely ever see a girl with hairy legs, a mustache, or armpit hair. Perfume, deodorants and colognes are now more important than ever because the way a person smells is critical in society. Evolving from a time for when people didn't shower every day, it can be extremely hard to find someone beautiful if they smell absolutely terrible (Edmonds, 2013). A lot of a person's beauty depends on their hygiene, and studies are finding that men are also getting on the bandwagon to become beautiful. In 1997, 2.4 billion dollars were spent on male grooming products and by 2009 that number doubled. It's hard to believe this but in 2010, males in American underwent 1.1 Million cosmetic procedures. As a whole, plastic surgeries, Botox operations, implant operations have become very popular. From 1997 to 2010, society has gone from a little over two million operations to nearly 13.8 million (ASPS, 2012). This is interesting because in 1999, only 19% of a surveyed population admitted they would be interested in getting plastic surgery. 56% of the young adults interviewed rated themselves as above average in attractiveness and only 7 out of 10 people admitted that being attractive was important to them. This almost goes exactly against the statistics of 2010 because the number of operations have drastically increased meaning that people aren’t satisfied with their looks and majority of the people are worried about their attractiveness (Newport, 1999). Scientific advancements have allowed research groups to conduct studies of the proper nutrition and weight loss programs for people. America has the 6th highest obesity rate in the world at nearly 35% of its citizens. You often see shows such as extreme make over weight loss edition or the biggest loser that star well known fitness trainers and obese people with a dream. The contestants are often those who suffer from a rough up-brining and insecurities issues. They are worried about what people think of them and are afraid of being the elephant in the room. Society has become a cruel world of expectations that it leaves people to believe that there is only one type of beauty when in reality everyone has their own personal beauty. What makes it sad is that it’s not only overweight adults that are dealing with insecurity issues about their figure, but also young kids. These children look up to those models, athletes and actresses who are on the cover on advertisements, on TV and etc. They hope they can be like them one day because they are different from all the other kids. Chris Powell from Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition, Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, all world renowned fitness trainers talk about the adversity their clients face. They get to teach their clients a proper way of training, eating and give them a better lifestyle, one that is beautiful in the eyes of society (Chang/Brenner, 2012). In the 21st century, plastic surgery and cosmetic reconstruction have reached a point where millions of patients are getting operated on various areas of their bodies to become what they believe as more beautiful. In 2012, 14.6 million people had cosmetic procedures done and 5.6 million had reconstruction operations. Overall, Americans underwent 1.6 cosmetic procedures such as liposuction, facelifts, 6.1 million Botox injections and 286,000 breast transplant operations. Shockingly nearly half the patients were between the ages of 40-54, with 91% of them being female (Brown, 2013). Plastic Surgeons are telling their patients that working out and eating on healthier diet will help them have a fitter body. The problem is, that people find so many things about their bodies they don’t like and the quick fix are getting them operated on. These “flaws” lead to people to try and become more beautiful even if these operations aren’t always in the best interest of them. For example, Marie Karlstad, an 83 year old women wasn’t happy with her breast as a result of her old age and decided to undergo a breast augmentation. This story could be viewed as a little over the top but it just goes to show you how people adapt to the people and things around them (Ellin, 2011). Who would’ve thought than a grandma would want breast implants because she wasn’t happy about how they looked? The media has played a huge role in the drastic changes in society, one of them being the views of beauty. Turn on the TV, the radio, open a newspaper, magazine or search the internet and you will most likely find advertisements involving physical beauty. For example, the proactive commercials for healthy complexion, P-90x for lean muscles and cut bodies, and those advertisements of beautiful men and women showing off various companies products. In addition, there are TV shows and reality series that make life seem so much extravagant and somewhat unrealistic. Jersey Shore is a great example of a bunch of young adults living life as a party. The men, all interested in being fashionable, muscular and attractive for the ladies, while the women dress are focused on looking good for the men. Today’s society likes the slim, curvy look for women and muscular look for men (TCU, 2013). That’s why in that show, Snooky is the receiver of many comments about being overweight because compared to the other women she doesn’t have the stereotypical beautiful body. Other shows like the Victoria Secret Fashion shows leave women in awe and self-conscious about their bodies. Whenever you see these types of shows involving the hottest models in the world, many girls out there are in desire to be just like them. They will do anything to be like them because it is only natural to want the spotlight on you. We live in a world where nothing is private, a world full with technology innovations. It is very easy to access articles, pictures and google information about whatever we would like. People try to copy their role models or idols in hopes of being just like them (Brown, 2013). We are just a google search away from finding pictures, articles and news about people that we are influenced by the media to always be at our best. Little things about famous people such as a picture of Kim Kardashian without any makeup can make become huge trending topics. A picture of Justin Bieber with a new short haircut can lead to tons of gossip and posts on Facebook, twitter and instagram. TV has also become a huge source of advertisement and inspiration. We no longer have to watch the news or wait for a newspaper or magazine article to come out. Our smart phones allow us the privilege of going from clueless to informed about a topic in just a few seconds. The point being, that we the people of the 21st century are like no generation before us (Schneider, 2013). A day in age where pictures can be edited to look the most attractive, where TV and camera enhancements can make us look larger than life, and where anything a famous person is involved in, is on the news within the hour. The hygiene of our society has gotten better as time has gone on. Beauty and cosmetic products have allowed us to look our best, and for those who are insecure about themselves, operations can do the trick. Technology and innovations will only get better, and expectations of society will always be going up. The view of beauty will only become more superficial as time goes on. The once cliché sayings about true beauty and the eyes of the beholder will ever be forgotten (Tornambe, 2011). The definition of beauty will always be changing. People will be influenced by things and other people to believe that this is more beautiful than that. We've seen how things have transpired over time. Beauty varies in the eyes of different people from different societies in different generations. What is beautiful now may not be what is beautiful when our grandchildren are alive. But we can bet that technology, scientific advancements will all grow to the point that we can be assured that the expectations of society will get higher and higher. Many people are calling the views of our society as distorted and I'm sure we will be doing the same in decades to come. Style, fashion, swag, stereotypes will change from time to time. This question will always be pondered from time to time: What is Beauty and who decides what is beautiful?
The Evolution of Beauty
In today’s society, beauty has developed its own requirements and characteristics in the eyes of the people. American’s have been influenced in large ways by the media such as the TV, newspaper articles, radio and internet on what is attractive and what isn’t. The stereotypes of beautiful men and women have changed credited to technology and scientific advancements. Most females want to be that skinny, curvy and sexy figure, while men want to be that ripped and toned model you can find on the cover of advertisements and magazines. People have become so worried about fitting in and being socially accepted by others that they go to extreme extents to be beautiful. What they don’t realize is that there isn’t a single guideline of what is beautiful, but insecurity about fitting in drives people to succumb to what society expects of them. Beauty has changed over time, and what is defined as beautiful today is nothing near what it was decades, generations and centuries ago.
Society’s view of beauty over time has changed drastically. The qualities and characteristics that represent an attractive male or female in today’s world are completely different from what it was centuries and even generations ago. Dating back to the time of Native Hawaiians, things were completely different from what they are today. A woman's beauty was judged by her physical features rather than by how attractive her face was. The stereotypical beautiful woman was around 6 foot tall and very wide, meaning the bigger she was, the better. Fast-forward to the 20th century, the most famous women of the 1950's was Marilyn Monroe who everyone looked up to as a superstar. She was a dazzling beauty, a model, actress and later a sex symbol. What people don't realize is that if Marilyn was a model in today's society, is that she would be considered too big (Shepphird, 2009). Somehow our generation has a view that skinny is better, but that's definitely not the case. The stereotypes in the world are simply false, unrealistic and inconsistent. Is a person's figure that important in how attractive they are? Recently, it has been evident that even teenagers are being influenced on how important the body of a person is to the opposite sex. It plays a huge role in the way he or she is viewed by people. Despite that, makeup has grown into a huge industry around the world because technology advancements have made it a must for actors and models who wish to look good in front of cameras. To a further extent, you will rarely ever see women in general without make up in public, even middle school girls can be seen with it on. From television shows, we see how important being tanned in, people even have their own tanning machines or even get fake tan sprayed on them for quick fixes. Starting from the early 1900's, women began to use razors to shave their natural body hair. What may have been seen as unusual back then is now a must in society. You will rarely ever see a girl with hairy legs, a mustache, or armpit hair. Perfume, deodorants and colognes are now more important than ever because the way a person smells is critical in society. Evolving from a time for when people didn't shower every day, it can be extremely hard to find someone beautiful if they smell absolutely terrible (Edmonds, 2013). A lot of a person's beauty depends on their hygiene, and studies are finding that men are also getting on the bandwagon to become beautiful. In 1997, 2.4 billion dollars were spent on male grooming products and by 2009 that number doubled. It's hard to believe this but in 2010, males in American underwent 1.1 Million cosmetic procedures. As a whole, plastic surgeries, Botox operations, implant operations have become very popular. From 1997 to 2010, society has gone from a little over two million operations to nearly 13.8 million (ASPS, 2012). This is interesting because in 1999, only 19% of a surveyed population admitted they would be interested in getting plastic surgery. 56% of the young adults interviewed rated themselves as above average in attractiveness and only 7 out of 10 people admitted that being attractive was important to them. This almost goes exactly against the statistics of 2010 because the number of operations have drastically increased meaning that people aren’t satisfied with their looks and majority of the people are worried about their attractiveness (Newport, 1999).
Scientific advancements have allowed research groups to conduct studies of the proper nutrition and weight loss programs for people. America has the 6th highest obesity rate in the world at nearly 35% of its citizens. You often see shows such as extreme make over weight loss edition or the biggest loser that star well known fitness trainers and obese people with a dream. The contestants are often those who suffer from a rough up-brining and insecurities issues. They are worried about what people think of them and are afraid of being the elephant in the room. Society has become a cruel world of expectations that it leaves people to believe that there is only one type of beauty when in reality everyone has their own personal beauty. What makes it sad is that it’s not only overweight adults that are dealing with insecurity issues about their figure, but also young kids. These children look up to those models, athletes and actresses who are on the cover on advertisements, on TV and etc. They hope they can be like them one day because they are different from all the other kids. Chris Powell from Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition, Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, all world renowned fitness trainers talk about the adversity their clients face. They get to teach their clients a proper way of training, eating and give them a better lifestyle, one that is beautiful in the eyes of society (Chang/Brenner, 2012).
In the 21st century, plastic surgery and cosmetic reconstruction have reached a point where millions of patients are getting operated on various areas of their bodies to become what they believe as more beautiful. In 2012, 14.6 million people had cosmetic procedures done and 5.6 million had reconstruction operations. Overall, Americans underwent 1.6 cosmetic procedures such as liposuction, facelifts, 6.1 million Botox injections and 286,000 breast transplant operations. Shockingly nearly half the patients were between the ages of 40-54, with 91% of them being female (Brown, 2013). Plastic Surgeons are telling their patients that working out and eating on healthier diet will help them have a fitter body. The problem is, that people find so many things about their bodies they don’t like and the quick fix are getting them operated on. These “flaws” lead to people to try and become more beautiful even if these operations aren’t always in the best interest of them. For example, Marie Karlstad, an 83 year old women wasn’t happy with her breast as a result of her old age and decided to undergo a breast augmentation. This story could be viewed as a little over the top but it just goes to show you how people adapt to the people and things around them (Ellin, 2011). Who would’ve thought than a grandma would want breast implants because she wasn’t happy about how they looked?
The media has played a huge role in the drastic changes in society, one of them being the views of beauty. Turn on the TV, the radio, open a newspaper, magazine or search the internet and you will most likely find advertisements involving physical beauty. For example, the proactive commercials for healthy complexion, P-90x for lean muscles and cut bodies, and those advertisements of beautiful men and women showing off various companies products. In addition, there are TV shows and reality series that make life seem so much extravagant and somewhat unrealistic. Jersey Shore is a great example of a bunch of young adults living life as a party. The men, all interested in being fashionable, muscular and attractive for the ladies, while the women dress are focused on looking good for the men. Today’s society likes the slim, curvy look for women and muscular look for men (TCU, 2013). That’s why in that show, Snooky is the receiver of many comments about being overweight because compared to the other women she doesn’t have the stereotypical beautiful body. Other shows like the Victoria Secret Fashion shows leave women in awe and self-conscious about their bodies. Whenever you see these types of shows involving the hottest models in the world, many girls out there are in desire to be just like them. They will do anything to be like them because it is only natural to want the spotlight on you.
We live in a world where nothing is private, a world full with technology innovations. It is very easy to access articles, pictures and google information about whatever we would like. People try to copy their role models or idols in hopes of being just like them (Brown, 2013). We are just a google search away from finding pictures, articles and news about people that we are influenced by the media to always be at our best. Little things about famous people such as a picture of Kim Kardashian without any makeup can make become huge trending topics. A picture of Justin Bieber with a new short haircut can lead to tons of gossip and posts on Facebook, twitter and instagram. TV has also become a huge source of advertisement and inspiration. We no longer have to watch the news or wait for a newspaper or magazine article to come out. Our smart phones allow us the privilege of going from clueless to informed about a topic in just a few seconds. The point being, that we the people of the 21st century are like no generation before us (Schneider, 2013). A day in age where pictures can be edited to look the most attractive, where TV and camera enhancements can make us look larger than life, and where anything a famous person is involved in, is on the news within the hour. The hygiene of our society has gotten better as time has gone on. Beauty and cosmetic products have allowed us to look our best, and for those who are insecure about themselves, operations can do the trick. Technology and innovations will only get better, and expectations of society will always be going up. The view of beauty will only become more superficial as time goes on. The once cliché sayings about true beauty and the eyes of the beholder will ever be forgotten (Tornambe, 2011).
The definition of beauty will always be changing. People will be influenced by things and other people to believe that this is more beautiful than that. We've seen how things have transpired over time. Beauty varies in the eyes of different people from different societies in different generations. What is beautiful now may not be what is beautiful when our grandchildren are alive. But we can bet that technology, scientific advancements will all grow to the point that we can be assured that the expectations of society will get higher and higher. Many people are calling the views of our society as distorted and I'm sure we will be doing the same in decades to come. Style, fashion, swag, stereotypes will change from time to time. This question will always be pondered from time to time: What is Beauty and who decides what is beautiful?